


Until I Heard You Sing

by maddiebug



Series: Ladybug Spotted Raincoat [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Character Development, Lila is a bully, Marinette gives up on her dreams, Marinette is a musician, Other, Prequel, Rose is sweet, alya tries to be a good friend, but not really, can totally be read on its own, for the second time, honestly read this before the rest of the series lol, she fails miserably, she finds a new dream, she's good at singing, the author is not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:02:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22045315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maddiebug/pseuds/maddiebug
Summary: A prequel to "I Don't Like Confrontation." The first work in this series:After a humiliatingly horrible experience at the school talent show, Marinette swears off singing, for ever."you know," Lila smirked, "until I heard you sing, I thought I had competition.""Was it really that bad?"Alya winced. "it could've been better."
Relationships: Alya Césaire & Lila Rossi, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Ladybug Spotted Raincoat [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1585339
Comments: 9
Kudos: 89





	Until I Heard You Sing

**Author's Note:**

> This is the other oneshot I talked about sorry it's sad. I don't like being mean to Mari.

Marinette's hands were shaking as she stood backstage. 

It was the day of her school talent show, and she was going to sing. In front of everyone. With an original song.

She was nervous, to say the least, but she was prepared. She had practiced over and over, memorizing the words. Even without her sheet music, she knew the chords from memory. 

She had made them herself. 

After Rose's band "Kitty Section," sang a very hardcore rock lovesong, it was Marinette's turn to go on stage.

She hesitated as she stepped up, managing to trip on the microphone chord and drop her ukulele.

She picked it up, embarassed. Her face was red and her hands were even more sweaty than before.

As she strummed the first note, something was off. The audience seemed to be starting her down as she had to retune her ukulele.

Seriously, what was she thinking. A ukulele? The most basic of instruments. She was just going to embarrass herself. Like Lila had said..

Marinette pushed the thought out of her mind. She had fixed the ukulele and she started to sing. 

Marinette had poured her heart and soul into writing that song, and she was going to pour her heart and soul into performing it. 

Even if she accidentally sang an octave higher and she couldn't reach all of the notes.

The first verse was very pitchy, but she was able to jump to the correct octave by the time she got to the chorus. She was a little flat, but it didn't sound horrible.

She reached the bridge and blanked. Literally blanked. 

She forgot her own words. Marinette scrambled for something, as she improvised. Her voice cracked in the panic, and she knew there was no coming back.

She sped through the last chorus, hoping to end the embarrassment as soon as she could.

As soon as she finished, Marinette sprinted off stage.

She had been a complete disaster. She couldn't hear the audience clapping, all she could hear was the sound of her voice cracking, over and over again.

"It's okay." Rose smiled at her. "I really liked your song."

"I didn't." Lila scoffed.

Marinette glared. "Go away."

"You know," Lila smirked, "until I heard you sing, I thought I had competition."

"Was it really that bad?" Marinette looked around. Lila was absolutely tone deaf.

Rose had already walked off, involved in a different conversation, not able to give her positive attitude.

Alya looked at Lila and winced. "it could've been better."

"Rose liked it." Marinette defended.

"Yeah. But Rose likes everything. She's too nice to tell anyone that they were bad."

"It wasn't horrible." Alya offered. "And it was really brave of you to go out and sing your own song."

"Brave." Lila nodded, "but foolish."

"What?" Marinette felt tears form in her eyes. 

"I thought it was cool." Alya tried to hug her. 'just not as cool as Lila's"

Marinette pushed her away. "I need space. Okay?"

"Of course you do." Lila said coldly.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Your little song? About wanting to go to outer space?"

"There was more to it than that. It was about following your dreams, no matter the cost." Marinette mumbled. 

"Whatever." Lila waved. "It was mediocre at best."

"At best?"

"Face it, Marinette, you don't have what it takes to be a singer."

"I don't?" Marinette looked at Alya.

"Girl. I want to support you, but I can't help the impossible."

Marinette let out a sob. "Just give me some space." 

They both stepped back.

"If you need someone to talk to, I'm here." Alya gave her a soft smile. "You know my number."

Marinette did. But she didn't feel like talking to Alya. Not when she was just going to parrot everything Lila said.

...

At the end of the show, Marinette was called up for an honorable mention. Frankly it would've been less embarrassing to not receive any recognition.

Marinette only hoped that the audience didn't remember her disaster of a performance. 

"We wanted to commend you." Mrs. Bustier smiled. "Performing your own song is a very brave thing to do."

Lila had said the same thing.

Marinette crumpled a little bit. "Thanks."

"Also, that jacket is incredible. Where did you get it?"

Marinette looked down and wiped her tears. "Oh this? I made it myself?"

"Really? Did you embroider those flowers by hand?"

"I did. Thanks for noticing."

"It looks very well made."

"Thank you Miss." Marinette blushed.

"If singing doesn't work out, you definitely have a career in fashion design."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Marinette accepted the honorable mention trophy and walked off stage, feeling better than she had when she entered. 

Even if her singing wasn't going to take her anywhere, and like she said in her song, she was too short to be an astronaut, she had a better dream waiting for her.

Fashion Design

...

When Marinette went home that night, she swore that she would never sing again. She couldn't. Her voice simply wasn't made for it. 

She pushed her music books and ukulele to the back of the attic. She closed the piano and never reopened it. To be forgotten but not discarded. 

In their place, she pulled out some fabric and an old sewing machine that her mom had placed in the attic.

She was going to make many more jackets. Pants. Dresses. She was going to design.

After all, it was never to early to start working on her dreams. 

Singing had never been anything more than a silly fantasy. And she couldn't even sing.

That wasn't who she was. 

Marinette was never a singer.

She was a creative mind. A designer. And she was going to start now.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi yes so your author here actually wrote a song when she was Mari's age and almost used it in this did but then decided not to b/c i don't like writing songfics, but I kept all the references to the song so if y'all want, I could post the lyrics in chapter 2?
> 
> Anyways, let me know what you think?
> 
> Also if there are any other fics you want in this series please let me know, I'm really liking this AU.
> 
> If you liked this and haven't read those, please do!


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